Rebranding your blog is a big undertaking. There’s more to it than changing your blog name and switching up your design theme. A blog rebrand requires careful thought, time and effort, and in some cases, can cost quite a bit of money. 

But learning how to rebrand your blog also comes with many benefits. Aside from giving your blog a complete makeover, getting your rebranding right can massively increase your traffic and net you much more revenue. 

Bloggers looking to rebrand have many reasons for doing so. From revamping their online presence and targeting new markets to breathing new life into an aging blog or simply boosting revenue, rebranding can change your blog’s trajectory. 

More bloggers are looking for ways to tap into new niches and improve their blog performance. And many are turning to rebranding. But rebranding is a tough process, and getting it wrong can leave you worse off than when you started.

This article looks at how to rebrand your blog. We’ll touch on the reasons for a blog rebrand and the pros and cons of doing so. We’ll also explore the steps you’ll need to take to successfully launch your new blog brand and what to do to ensure your rebrand is a success. 

Every day, businesses are rebranding themselves. Some are global titans of industry. Facebook’s rebrand to Meta during a sticky time in its history is already proving to be a big success for the company; Dunkin’ dropping the word ‘Donuts’ from their name; McDonalds’ 2021 brand packaging shift come to mind. But most rebrands involve small and medium enterprises, including blogs. 

So what is a brand exactly, and how does it fit into your blog’s online presence? Well, according to Investopedia:

“The term ‘brand’ refers to a business and marketing concept that helps people identify a particular company, product, or individual… they help shape people’s perceptions of companies, their products, or individuals. Brands commonly use identifying markers to help create brand identities within the marketplace. They provide enormous value to the company or individual, giving them a competitive edge over others in the same industry…”

Brands are intangible concepts that provide special value to a business and allow an entity to establish itself as unique and identifiable. Branding can apply to companies, people, entire countries, or ideas. They consist of various elements, including:

• A brand name – the name of an entity or organization that is clearly distinguishable.
• The brand image – how the public and market views and perceives a brand.
• A brand’s design – The colors, logo, typography, style, and visual aspects of a brand. 
• Brand identity – The values and principles by which a brand abides. 

There are numerous other blog rebrand elements and aspects to consider, but these are among the most important. Brands can be designed, trademarked, bought, sold and eliminated, and entire branding industries have been built around them. 

Like businesses, blogs have brands too. From the style in which posts are created to a blog website logo, the look and feel of the site, what you say on your About Me page, and the causes and entities you support, a blog’s brand helps it to stand out.

It provides enormous value in helping people to recognize the blog and form an opinion or idea about it. Blog branding is what makes a blog unique at face value and communicates the essence of the blogger’s vision for the blog itself. 

But blog brands are slightly more flexible than big corporate branding or brands used for traditional businesses. For one, rebranding your blog is a whole lot easier than rebranding a physical commercial enterprise. It is significantly cheaper, and if your rebranding efforts go wrong, you can always revert back to your original brand choices.

Bloggers are creative professionals. This means that they’re always on the lookout for something new, more appealing, and original. While a blogger’s branding efforts may have served a purpose for many years, the need for how to rebrand your blog will eventually become necessary before things become stale and boring. 

Here are some of the most common reasons for bloggers to consider rebranding their blog. 

Because it’s time for an overhaul

While most well-maintained blogs can go on thriving as-is for a long time, sometimes a blog needs an overhaul. Like moving into a run-down house and then completely renovating it, older blogs can take on a new appeal if rebranded correctly and their old content repurposed. 

Some people opt to rebrand after a short time, but most bloggers will only do so after a couple of years and only if necessary. Blogs that have seen a drop off in traffic or those whose brands look and feel outdated are the best candidates. 

Because of bad publicity

Some bloggers are forced to deal with negative sentiment and bad publicity. Whether as a result of a mistake or poor decision or through no fault of their own, bad publicity can be a digital death sentence. Your rankings may take a hit, social media may turn its back on you, and people might unfairly associate negative feelings with blog quality. 

Learning how to rebrand your blog whose online reputation has been severely damaged or destroyed is an effective way of moving on from whatever caused the bad publicity in the first place and starting fresh. Rebranding a blog seen as ‘damaged goods’ gives you a clean slate and is an effective alternative if all other publicity remedies fail.   

Because your blog is outgrowing your brand

Sometimes a blog’s own success may outgrow its existing brand. Blogs that suddenly take off and surge in popularity can be hamstrung by a weak or poorly conceived brand, and you wouldn’t want that to slow things down. 

Many bloggers choose to rebrand before it’s too late, rethinking their new branding approach in line with the blog’s newfound popularity and before the existing brand’s state comes back to bite them. 

Because you’re combining with another brand or migrating to a new domain

If you’ve just bought or registered a new domain and want to take your blog there, this is the perfect opportunity to rebrand. Rebranding your blog as you launch under a new domain name is a natural option and prevents the domain’s previous brand from interfering with your own. 

You may have also just purchased or taken over an existing brand and don’t want to lose that brand value when incorporating it into your own. Whether blending more than one brand together or using the existing brand value to elevate your own, a blog rebrand is a great option. 

Because you want to become more competitive 

Brands are always growing, evolving, emerging, and disappearing. Competing brands are often heavily influenced by each other, and rebranding can be a powerful tool for gaining a competitive advantage. 

Smart bloggers always keep an eye on the markets, closely watching their competitors to spot emerging blog brand trends and for any new opportunities. Sometimes rebranding represents an effective tactic for grabbing a bigger slice of the market share pie – if you can one-up the competition in the process. 

Because the original branding isn’t working

Sometimes a blogging brand just isn’t meant to be. Despite our best efforts, every now and again, a brand falls flat and misses the mark. When this happens, don’t give up. Take your investments to date, and the lessons learned and rebrand differently. 

Modify and use existing brand elements, reconfigure your branding strategy, and add value to your new brand that you’ve extracted from the failed one. Sometimes the most effective blog rebrands require only one or two changes. 

How to rebrand your blog can be risky, but it is also a very rewarding exercise. Depending on your reasons for rebranding your blog, there are many different advantages for doing so, while facing a couple of risks too. 

Pros for rebranding your blog

The advantages of successfully rebranding a blog are enormous. If executed correctly, a rebranded blog can outperform its original version tenfold.

Here are some of the pros for rebranding your blog. 

• Keeps things interesting – Audiences enjoy fresh branding as much as they do fresh content. A rebrand can keep your blog exciting and vibrant for readers, providing a new space and perspective for them to tuck into. 
• Opportunity to expand niche offering – Rebrands are great at helping you to gain a better foothold in your niche. While you may stand to lose out in some niche corners loyal to your old branding, there are plenty of opportunities to rebrand in line with new ones. 
• Can drive new revenue from new markets – Rebranding your blog also means you have the chance to reconfigure your branding to appeal to other, more lucrative markets your existing brand may not have been able to access. 
• Gives struggling blogs new life – Instead of abandoning a struggling blog, a rebrand can be its second chance. By applying the lessons learned to your new branding strategy, you stand to transform a blog that isn’t doing well into a shiny new site with a fresh face. 

Cons of rebranding your blog

While many good things come with rebranding, there are a couple of risks you’ll need to watch out for. These cons don’t mean you shouldn’t do it – they’re just there to keep you alert to the challenges of rebranding. 

• Google SERP rankings – A blog rebrand may cause it to plummet down the rankings temporarily. This is because it may take Google a while to figure out that you’ve rebranded and aren’t a completely new entity. 
• Can take time and get expensive – Rebranding isn’t a guaranteed overnight ticket to success. The process takes time and effort and can require a couple of iterations before getting it right, not to mention the added cost of investing in your rebranding. 
• May lose followers & traffic – A rebrand may also result in losing followers and traffic if you don’t let people and Google know that you’re moving to change. This may be a result of people not knowing you’re rebranding.

Rebranding your blog is a process that can involve many different steps. Depending on how extensively you’re looking to reconfigure and change your brand, you may be able to skip some steps, or you’ll have to dedicate extra time and resources to others.

Let’s take a look at some of the important steps and actions you’ll need to cover for how to rebrand your blog successfully.